The Moment When I Became An Historian

I notice that I am thinking like a historian and not a student.

I just wanted to commemorate today for the rest of my life. This is when I was reading my book, Improper Pursuits and  found something that I want to include in one of my papers. So, I underlined it in my pencil, and made a note in the margin, just like I always do. However, what I did next was immediately look at the author. Is this a popular history book, or scholarly? Well, Carolina Hicks (the author) has a degree in Archaeology and Art History, and has a Ph.D. in Medieval Art and Iconography. She teaches Art History and has written at least one other book. The book's publisher is St. Martin's Press, a very reputable company. So, I absolutely CAN use this book. YAY.

However, what makes this a different day is that I thought to look for this information immediately, AND THEN I realized it. 

I also was looking up books on Google Books for my paper (that I think I'm gunna write), and what is the first thing I look for there? The publish date. I only looked for books published in the long 18th century (Georgian time period.) 

Again, it was automatic, not thought out! 

This may seem simple, but finally set in for me.